Democratisation versus engagement? Social and economic impact assessment and community participation in the coal mining industry of the Bowen Basin, Australia

A review of economic impact assessment (EcIA), social impact assessment (SIA), and community participation practice in the rapidly growing coal industry of Australia’s Bowen Basin suggests significant shortcomings in scope and reporting with neither EcIA nor SIA giving adequate attention to the measurement and distribution of negative impacts. This review also demonstrates a tendency to separate community participation from the conduct of impact assessment, partly in response to a perceived need to engage in relationship building with impacted communities through the entire life of mining operations. However, this separation also has significant implications for the quality of impact assessment studies and is suggestive of an approach to engagement that is more focussed on expectation and image management than on participation in decision-making.